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Exa ACTION

Search

Search the web with Exa. auto is the recommended search type, and Highlights is the recommended default content mode. See the documentation
  • Action
  • Read only
  • API key
  • SDK
  • MCP

IMPLEMENTATION

Call this tool

Connect a user's Exa account once, then configure and run Search from your backend or agent.

import { PipedreamClient } from "@pipedream/sdk"

const pd = new PipedreamClient({
  projectId: process.env.PIPEDREAM_PROJECT_ID!,
  clientId: process.env.PIPEDREAM_CLIENT_ID!,
  clientSecret: process.env.PIPEDREAM_CLIENT_SECRET!,
  projectEnvironment: "production",
})

const result = await pd.actions.run({
  id: "exa-search",
  externalUserId: "{external_user_id}", // any stable ID for this user in your system
  configuredProps: {
    exa: { authProvisionId: "apn_xxxxxxx" },
    query: "Query",
    type: "Search Type",
  },
})

console.log(result)

SCHEMA

Inputs

Pipedream supplies the connected account. Your application provides the operation-specific values below. Dynamic inputs are resolved against that user's account.

Search inputs
Property Type Description
query Query string
The search query string
Required
type Search Type string
The type of search to perform. auto is recommended for most workflows.
Optional
category Category string
A data category to focus on
Optional
numResults Number of Results integer
Number of search results to return. Exa currently supports up to 100 results for supported search types.
Optional
includeDomains Include Domains string[]
List of domains to include in the search results
Optional
excludeDomains Exclude Domains string[]
List of domains to exclude from the search results
Optional
startCrawlDate Start Crawl Date string
Results will only include links crawled after this date (ISO 8601 format). Example: 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Optional
endCrawlDate End Crawl Date string
Results will only include links crawled before this date (ISO 8601 format). Example: 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Optional
startPublishedDate Start Published Date string
Results will only include links published after this date (ISO 8601 format). Example: 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Optional
endPublishedDate End Published Date string
Results will only include links published before this date (ISO 8601 format). Example: 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Optional
includeText Include Text string[]
List of strings that must be present in the webpage text (max 5 words per string)
Optional
excludeText Exclude Text string[]
List of strings that must not be present in the webpage text
Optional
moderation Include Moderation boolean
Whether to filter unsafe content from results
Optional
systemPrompt System Prompt string
Instructions that guide Exa's synthesized output and, for deep search types, search planning.
Optional
outputSchema Output Schema object
JSON schema for structured output from Exa. Use this to shape synthesized search or answer output.
Optional
additionalQueries Additional Queries string[]
Extra query variations for deep-lite, deep, or deep-reasoning search.
Optional
userLocation User Location string
Two-letter ISO country code used to bias results toward a region, for example US.
Optional
contentsHighlights Contents - Highlights boolean
Return token-efficient highlights from each result. This is the recommended default for most Search workflows.
Optional
contentsHighlightQuery Contents - Highlights Query string
Optional query to guide which highlights Exa should return.
Optional
contentsHighlightMaxCharacters Contents - Highlights Max Characters integer
Optional cap on highlight characters per URL. Leave unset for Exa's highest-quality default.
Optional
contentsText Contents - Text boolean
Return full page text. Prefer Highlights when you want a smaller, more targeted context window.
Optional
contentsTextMaxCharacters Contents - Text Max Characters integer
Optional cap on returned text length.
Optional
contentsTextIncludeHtmlTags Contents - Text Include HTML Tags boolean
Whether to preserve HTML tags in extracted text.
Optional
contentsTextVerbosity Contents - Text Verbosity string
Level of detail for extracted text. Exa recommends using Max Age Hours of 0 when you need filtered live text.
Optional
contentsTextIncludeSections Contents - Text Include Sections string[]
Only include these page sections. Most reliable with Max Age Hours set to 0.
Optional
contentsTextExcludeSections Contents - Text Exclude Sections string[]
Exclude these page sections. Most reliable with Max Age Hours set to 0.
Optional
contentsSummary Contents - Summary boolean
Return Exa-generated summaries. Prefer Highlights unless you explicitly need Exa-side synthesis.
Optional
contentsSummaryQuery Contents - Summary Query string
Optional instructions that guide Exa's generated summary
Optional
contentsSummarySchema Contents - Summary Schema object

JSON schema for structured Exa summary output. See JSON Schema documentation for details.

Example: { "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "title": "Title", "type": "object", "properties": { "Property 1": { "type": "string", "description": "Description" }, "Property 2": { "type": "string", "enum": ["option 1", "option 2", "option 3"], "description": "Description" } }, "required": ["Property 1"] }

Optional
contentsMaxAgeHours Contents - Max Age Hours integer
Maximum acceptable age for cached content in hours. Use 0 to always live crawl, -1 for cache only, or leave unset for Exa's default behavior.
Optional
contentsLivecrawlTimeout Contents - Live Crawl Timeout integer
Timeout in milliseconds for live crawling (default: 10000)
Optional
contentsSubpages Contents - Subpages integer
Number of subpages to crawl per result
Optional
contentsSubpageTarget Contents - Subpage Target string
Keyword or phrase Exa should prioritize when choosing which subpages to crawl
Optional
contentsExtrasLinks Contents - Extras Links integer
Number of URLs to return from each webpage.
Optional
contentsExtrasImageLinks Contents - Extras Image Links integer
Number of images to return for each result.
Optional
context Legacy Context boolean
Hidden legacy prop preserved for saved workflows. When set, Search preserves Exa's deprecated top-level context output and also keeps the legacy highlights fallback.
Optional

REFERENCE

Tool details

Behavior hints are published with the component in the Pipedream registry and surface as MCP tool annotations, so an agent can reason about a tool before it calls it.

Registry key
exa-search
Version
0.1.1
App
Exa
Authentication
API key
Read-only
Yes
Destructive
No
Open world
Yes